Saga of Ryzom to return

Fans of The Saga of Ryzom, the unusual science-fantasy MMO created by the Nevrax studio in France, have been informed via a newsletter that the game is set to return.

Nevrax went into receivership in 2006, and although the game struggled along with some help from GameForge, the last public sever shut its virtual doors in February this year.

However, the game's forums came back online in June, and it now seems that servers are going live for play once again.

"We are all very pleased to share with you our joy that the hardest part is behind us," said the newsletter. "Our servers have already been revived in a testing phase for several weeks now." Former Ryzom subscribers have received free VIP access, and characters have been resurrected.

It's not clear where the financial backing for this new lease of life for Ryzom comes from, although the newsletter mentions that some of the current development team worked on the game previously.

Saga of Ryzom was an ambitious game with striking artwork, and also the first massively multiplayer game to open, via its Ryzom Ring expansion, itself to user-created content.